Sector

Requirement

System

Background

25 Blythe Road was founded in 2007 by Thomas Del Mar and is now a hub of auction specialists holding two auctions in each dedicated field per year. They currently cover six areas of speciality - Antique Arms, Armour and Militaria; Antique, and Maritime and Scientific Models, Instruments and Works of Art; Decorative Works of Art; British & Continental Pictures; Photography and Islamic, Indian, Himalayan and South East Asian Works of Art.

25 Blythe Road were looking to bring two of their auction categories into a fully online format - British & Continental Pictures, and Islamic, Indian, Himalayan and South East Asian Works of Art - with a view of bringing more departments in to the online format over time.

For a system to meet their requirements it needed to work alongside the administration and IT systems already in place, avoiding any duplication of work, with the possibility of easily importing and extracting data.

Most importantly it had to offer good value for money.

Special Requirements

As early recognisers of the enormous potential of the online art market, 25 Blythe Road had held their first online auction in 2012 but were now looking for a platform that offered a greater level of professional presentation and quality performance that would match the high level of service their clients had come to expect from their specialist live auctions.

With such a high degree of specialisation it was also important to the client that any system they used should allow them to maintain complete control and ownership over client details. 25 Blythe Road's clients where largely high net worth individuals which a very tight focus on their collecting areas so a system that would give them full autonomy over how their client details would be used and as a result what correspondence they would be exposed to was very appealing.

Finally 25 Blythe Road were looking for a platform that would help them with their existing online marketing strategy.

The Solution

iRostrum offered 25 Blythe Road the ideal auction platform which enabled them to host their own online auctions rather than running their online auctions through an external market place. The quick and efficient set up process meant that we were able to provide 25 Blythe Road with their customised auction platform in a very short timeframe so that they were able to hold their first online auction within a matter of a few weeks from signing up.

The Result

iRostrum gave them complete management of client registrations and bidding processes which saw a significant improvement in client satisfaction as they were no longer obliged to register details with an external market place.

The iRostrum administrative tools allowed them to either import all auction data directly into the system, allowing them to run iRostrum in parallel to their existing IT systems, or catalogue directly in iRostrum depending on each specialist's working preference. All auction data could then quickly and efficiently be extracted after an auction and imported back into their existing systems for post sale and accounting purposes, whilst offering a high level of data for comprehensive post sale analysis.

Our bespoke software development team were able to provide some additional customisation to the system to enable a slight variation on the bidding time extension functions to suit the client's individual requirements.

iRostrum's underlying SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy, which forms an integral part of the way that the software has been designed, makes a significant contribution to 25 Blythe Road's own online strategy, helping enforce their relevance and reputation online. Well labelled Auctions and Lots pages ensure their data is constantly working for them and promoting their brand digitally.

In addition iRostrum were asked to take on the hosting and support of their existing website, undertaking some redevelopment to help integrate iRostrum even more seamlessly into their brand.